Friday, December 16, 2016

Servicing & maintenance in hazardous areas!

The IS1+ Remote I/O System from R. Stahl enables preventive maintenance implementations in zone 1 and 2 hazardous areas, where servicing systems and components is particularly challenging and expensive.

Preventing severe malfunctions and downtime via advance notifications and timely intervention not only helps reduce regular operating costs, but also and especially reduces the risk of incalculable losses due to unscheduled shutdowns. This is achieved through innovative IS1+ features: notably, intelligent self-diagnostics ensure an early identification of errors, so users can be alerted before malfunctions lead to serious problems. Such alerts can be triggered up to 12 months prior to an expected failure. The Remote I/O System continuously monitors all internal components such as the redundant integrated BusRail as well as operating parameters and external conditions. The latter include, for instance, ambient temperature, thermal shock, the electrical load of the I/O modules, or on/off switching. Based on such data, a smart algorithm calculates the remaining lifespan of components.

User alerts comply with the widely accepted NAMUR NE107 standard on "self-monitoring and diagnosis of field devices". On the one hand, a blue LED on the I/O module is used to show "Maintenance" requirement on location. A diagnostic message is also passed on to control and asset management systems. The blue maintenance message with the defined symbol and an explanatory text appears in the IS1+ DTM. In addition to maintenance notifications, IS1+ intelligent diagnostic functions provide a range of other information. For instance, signal errors are reported via red LEDs for specific channels as well as via error telegrams. Moreover, for IS1+ for PROFIBUS DP in particular, application creation in the control system is facilitated through a signal status bit – much like the status byte for systems such as PROFIBUS PA, it serves to supplement 'good' or 'bad' (for example, in case of line errors) status information that is cyclically transmitted for each process value.